The Mandan tribe differed materially in its habits and customs from the Indians to the north, who supported themselves mainly, if not entirely, by hunting, who cared very little for agriculture, and moved continually like nomads over great stretches of country, living chiefly in tents or temporary villages.  The Mandans, on the other hand, were a people who practised agriculture, and had permanent and well-constructed towns.  In fact, their civilization and demeanour made such an impression on the Assiniboin and other northern tribes that they had been considered a sort of “white people”, somewhat akin to Europeans, and La Verendrye was a little disappointed to find them only Amerindians in race and colour.

The six hundred Assiniboins who had gathered about La Verendrye’s expedition proved to be a great trouble to him, as they were constantly picking quarrels with the Mandans, who were very dishonest.  Accordingly, La Verendrye arranged with the Mandans to frighten them away by pretending that the Siou Indians were on the warpath.  The six hundred Assiniboins bolted, but took with them La Verendrye’s interpreter, so that he was henceforth obliged to communicate with the Mandans by means of signs and gestures.  This and other reasons decided him to return—­even though it was the depth of winter, to Fort La Reine, but not before he had given the head chief of the Mandans a flag and a leaden plate which (unknown to the Mandans) meant taking possession of their country in the name of the French king.

The journey back to Fort La Reine, over the plains of the Assiniboin, was a terrible experience.  The party had to travel in the teeth of an almost unceasing north-east wind which was freezingly cold.  Night after night they were obliged to dig deep holes in the snow for their sleeping places.  La Verendrye nearly died of agonizing pain and fatigue during this journey, and was a long time recovering from its effects.

As they continued to receive friendly messages from the Mandans, inviting them to make further discoveries, LA VERENDRYE’S sons, PIERRE and FRANCOIS, set out in the spring of 1742, and, after some checks and disappointments, managed with a single Mandan guide to reach Broad Lands on the Little Missouri River, where they noticed the earths of different colours, blue, green, red, black, white, and yellow, which are so characteristic of this region.  They reached the village of the Crow Indians, passed through a portion of the friendly tribe, the Cheyennes (the name was probably pronounced Shian) and got into the country which was constantly being ravaged by the Snake Indians, or Shoshones.  Here, on the 1st of January, 1743, when the mists of morning cleared away, they saw upon the horizon the outline of huge mountains.  As they travelled westwards or south-westwards, day after day, the jagged blue wall resolved itself into towering snow-capped peaks, glittering in the sun and provoking the appellation of “the Mountains of Bright Stones”, a name probably given to the Rocky Mountains by the Amerindians, but used in all the earlier French and English maps until the end of the eighteenth century.[15]